This Week in Government

Genoa board to discuss issue for March ballot

The Genoa school board has scheduled a work session for Nov. 28 to discuss a resolution to place a replacement levy on the March 2012 ballot.

The session will start at 5 p.m. at the administration building on Genoa-Clay Center Road.

By a 38-vote margin earlier this month, voters in the Genoa district rejected a 1.6-mill continuing replacement levy that would have funded the purchase of computers, buses, building improvements, and other expenses with a useful life of five years or more.

School superintendent Dennis Mock said the ballot language, which indicated there would be an increase of 0.25 mill, may have confused voters.

While the issue would have replaced a 1.35-mill permanent improvement levy, the school board had filed a resolution with the Ottawa County auditor to discontinue collections on a 1.8-mill permanent improvement levy if the new levy passed.

The net result to owners of a home with a market value of $100,000 would be they’d pay about $49 a year – the same as the two other levies combined.

“The ballot didn’t say the cost to taxpayers would be the same,” Mock said.

The board may opt to place the 1.35-mill issue on the ballot next year and then try to replace the 1.8-mill issue when it expires with a 1.6-mill levy request, Mock said.

Replacement issues are levied on current property valuations but renewal levy millage is based on the valuations in place the year the issue is first approved.

Counsel applicants have until Dec. 10Applications for Ohio’s next Consumers’ Counsel will be accepted until Dec. 10.

Advertisements are being placed in newspapers, industry-related publications, and on the state website (careers.ohio.gov ).

The successful applicant must be a licensed attorney with at least five years of utility regulating experience at the state or federal level and may not be a candidate for elective public office.

The nine-member Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) Governing Board will make its selection after reviewing recommendations from a sub-committee assigned to consider all applications. Under Ohio law, applications are considered public record.

"The entire board will be actively engaged in ensuring the OCC selects the most qualified person to lead this agency,” OCC Governing Board chairman John Moliterno stated. “The immediate goal of this Governing Board is finding a person who will continue the OCC’s proud record of protecting and saving money for Ohio's residential utility consumers," Moliterno added.

The board has hired three Consumers' Counsels in the past 35 years: William A. Spratley, Robert Tongren and Janine Migden-Ostrander, who resigned in September.

Bruce J. Weston currently serves as interim counsel.

B-C-S board to meetThere will be a special meeting of the Benton-Carroll-Salem Board of Education Nov. 29 at 6 p.m. at the board office, 11685 W. St. Rt. 163, Oak Harbor.

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